(yes I know my cabling looks like trash, no window in the side panel so no need to make it look clean)

Well, the other point of cable management is to help the air flow.

As for me:

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912CPU: Intel Core i5-2500k @ 5.0 GHzHeatsink: Corsair Air Series A70GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti DS Superclocked 1024 MB GDDR5 <-- Quality card for the price, and my plans to upgrade this box are merely to fit another one in.SSD: Crucial 128 GB m4HD: Western Digital Caviar Green 2 TB <-- This had the same RPM and cache as the Caviar Blacks, but was 2 TB for $120 instead of 1 TB for $100 and 1.5 TB for $110. Caviar Black 2 TB was around $200 at the time.RAM: Corsair Vengeance Blue 8 GB (2x4 GB) PC3-12800 1600 mHz DDR3 SDRAMMOBO: ASRock Z68 PRO3 GEN3 Intel Z68 ATX DDR3 1066 <-- This is honestly a piece of crap. It's advertised as full-sized ATX, but it's actually somewhere between ATX and micro ATX, which means my fan is covering one of my RAM slots. I should have done more research before buying it.DVD: Asus 24x SATA DVD-RW <-- I admit to having never used this since the initial drivers/OS install.PSU: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 <-- Bigger than necessary for the second graphics card I'll add later.OS: Windows 7 Pro 64bitMonitor 1: Samsung P2770HD 27-Inch HDTV Monitor <-- This was a steal. Refurbished, but from Samsung (a brand I trust) and through the Amazon Warehouse (whose return policy I trust), for $262.32 instead of around $450.Monitor 2: Vizio E220MV 22-Inch HDTV <-- This was around $200 retail, but with employee discount I got some hookup cables and such for half off + boosted my numbers for that month.Mouse: Razer Naga 12-button SWTOR edition.Keyboard: Gigaware keyboard you can find in any radioshack for like 25 bucks.Speakers: Gigaware 50W speakers you can find in most radioshacks for like 40 bucks.Desk: Walker Edison 3-piece Contemporary Glass and Steel Desk <-- This thing is ridiculously sexy, and it was on sale for $90 instead of around $160.

She's idling right now in the 17-24*C range as I do calculus homework, running IRC, firefox, atunes, msn, stuff like that. Under full load, I don't often see her break 70*C. I think the highest I've ever seen is 76*C. (Warning is 85*C, safety cutoff is 98*C.) Voltage idle is 1.192-1.200 V, under load goes up to 1.496-1.512V. I have seen it tickle the warning level of 1.520V, but I watched CPU-Z like a hawk for about an hour and never saw the voltage go past that.

Disturbingly enough, however, when I booted Prime95 to double check those numbers just now, I bluescreened x101 (needs more voltage). Hrm.

Last edited by Armond; 2012-10-08 at 05:10 AM.
Reason: 27 and 17 are different numbers.

Not bad, but what did you upgrade exactly (and what were you using previously)? At first glance your specs look a tad...unbalanced, atleast for gaming purposes.

Pretty much everything, the only pieces left from the old computer are the hard drives and DVD drive. As for the specs of the old computer, its far too abysmal to list, I literally cry when I look at the pieces and how horrid they are.

Ya the specs are slightly off, it's a work in progress, gonna add another 8 gigs of matched ram, and possibly swap my boot drive to an SSD. Thinking about a corsair H40/H50 for water cooling the CPU as well.

Last edited by at05gt; 2012-10-08 at 05:34 AM.

Originally Posted by noteworthynerd

But hey, we're just strangers on the Internet with decades of combined IT and computer building experience, what do we know?

And unless it's changed, most TVs still don't have a square pixel. What is it again, 1.6 factor on the width compared to height.

Most TV panels should have square pixels and to my knowledge they do. Even during the (digital) SD widescreen anamorphic era the panels usually had square pixels while the actual transmission was in 720x576 stretched to either 1024x576 (16:9) or 768x576 (4:3). Newer HD broadcasting standards, namely 1920x1080 and 1280x720, are supposed to be viewed on completely square pixels.

You guys have just Gigantic cases, I'm happy with my Antec 300 but my god the size of some of your front intake fans is a bit ridiculous. :P

@Armond I'm kind of limited given the size of my case, I dont have the back panel room to route cables behind the motherboard, what can you recommend I could do to improve airflow/cabling look, given what you can see in my pics?

Last edited by at05gt; 2012-10-08 at 06:57 AM.

Originally Posted by noteworthynerd

But hey, we're just strangers on the Internet with decades of combined IT and computer building experience, what do we know?

Most TV panels should have square pixels and to my knowledge they do. Even during the (digital) SD widescreen anamorphic era the panels usually had square pixels while the actual transmission was in 720x576 stretched to either 1024x576 (16:9) or 768x576 (4:3). Newer HD broadcasting standards, namely 1920x1080 and 1280x720, are supposed to be viewed on completely square pixels.

You guys have just Gigantic cases, I'm happy with my Antec 300 but my god the size of some of your front intake fans is a bit ridiculous. :P

Most "spacious" mid towers have a 180mm-200mm intake fan, it's the quietest and most effective fan for most purposes since it can spin at super-low RPM's and push the same amount of air as a smaller fan spinning much faster.

I'll admit the term "mid tower" really has lost meaning nowadays since so many of them are normal-sized (like your Antec 300) going to borderline full-tower sizes (like my Storm Sniper). The biggest advantage is of course cable management, more room to work in, more room to expand, etc.

Believe it or not, recently there has been something of a trend going on with PC builders/enthusiasts who are trying to get AWAY from huge builds and going for the smallest form factors. There's been a sudden shift towards building mini-ITX/uATX rigs, but still using top-of-the-range hardware. E.g. cramming an i5 3570K + Z77 mini-ITX board + GTX680 into a tiny case, so at first look it seems to be a modest little family PC, and then you see it pushing max settings in BF3/Crysis 2 at high framerates and wonder "dude what the fuck is in that little box?!". There's just...a crazy joy in the idea of building a cute little rig that performs equal or better to massive monsters that are 3x bigger!

Now even I really really feel like building my own little mini-ITX beast, but I have to slap myself keep myself reminded to spend money responsibly and be satisfied with what I have :P

Originally Posted by at05gt

@Armond I'm kind of limited given the size of my case, I dont have the back panel room to route cables behind the motherboard, what can you recommend I could do to improve airflow/cabling look, given what you can see in my pics?

There really isn't much you can do since there is no back panel routing. You're using a non-modular PSU (meh Thermaltake) so it's going to be sprouting a huge web of cables which you can't detach. The most you can do is tie cables together in bunches, coil all the cables not in use around the bottom with cable ties/etc, try to push them out of the way of airflow.

She's idling right now in the 17-24*C range as I do calculus homework, running IRC, firefox, atunes, msn, stuff like that. Under full load, I don't often see her break 70*C. I think the highest I've ever seen is 76*C. (Warning is 85*C, safety cutoff is 98*C.) Voltage idle is 1.192-1.200 V, under load goes up to 1.496-1.512V. I have seen it tickle the warning level of 1.520V, but I watched CPU-Z like a hawk for about an hour and never saw the voltage go past that.

Disturbingly enough, however, when I booted Prime95 to double check those numbers just now, I bluescreened x101 (needs more voltage). Hrm.

Hmm... 17c would mean room temperatures in the high 40s or 10c~.

That aside, if your other claims are true, it would be very wise not to raise your already dangerously high voltage any more. You'll end up frying the chip.

HD: Western Digital Caviar Green 2 TB <-- This had the same RPM and cache as the Caviar Blacks, but was 2 TB for $120 instead of 1 TB for $100 and 1.5 TB for $110. Caviar Black 2 TB was around $200 at the time.

Which caviar green would that be? :-P Not dissing the choice, just saying.. Greens have lower RPM and cache than blacks, that's the whole point of them. (less speed -> less power = less sound and heat)

@Armond I'm kind of limited given the size of my case, I dont have the back panel room to route cables behind the motherboard, what can you recommend I could do to improve airflow/cabling look, given what you can see in my pics?

I'd honestly recommend buying a pound of cable ties and going to town. I don't have the time right now to take a pic of my box, but it looks something like a roller coaster - there's a path the general bunch of cables follows, and it obviously splits from time to time, but everything is as bunched up as I could get it.

Originally Posted by glo

Hmm... 17c would mean room temperatures in the high 40s or 10c~.

That aside, if your other claims are true, it would be very wise not to raise your already dangerously high voltage any more. You'll end up frying the chip.

My room is a warm one. It's 7:30 AM and it's already 72*F/22.3*C in here. Later tonight, after I get home, I expect it'll be closer to 76-80*F.

And yeah, not touching those settings. I actually built this guy about six months ago, and that bluescreen in my previous post is the first one I've had. Not gonna touch that vcore setting.

Originally Posted by Ghâzh

Which caviar green would that be? :-P Not dissing the choice, just saying.. Greens have lower RPM and cache than blacks, that's the whole point of them. (less speed -> less power = less sound and heat)

I know, right? I was pretty surprised too. But check it out - I spent a good ten minutes flipping between the green and the black before I decided I must be crazy and got the green.

I know, right? I was pretty surprised too. But check it out - I spent a good ten minutes flipping between the green and the black before I decided I must be crazy and got the green.

Those are false specs. Western Digital doesn't officially report the speed of the Green drives but instead talk about their "smart speed adjusting technology" that sets the RPM according to the search / write function you are specifying. It is limited to 5400 RPM by hardware, though (which they don't mention in the technical specs). Greens are also made from cheaper parts hence the shorter warranty.

Nevertheless, if I was buying a storage drive right now I'd use the Green one instead of the Black I have at the moment. It's loud. Probably the loudest part in my pc while idling. :< Also the boot up sound is shattering. Like someone scratching nails against a blackboard.

I know, right? I was pretty surprised too. But check it out - I spent a good ten minutes flipping between the green and the black before I decided I must be crazy and got the green.

I would check Western Digital's website and specification sheets and not look on Amazon.

The Green drives use what WD calls "IntelliPower", which essentially means that the drive will use whatever speed it finds "necessary". According to tests, the max speed is 5400 RPM, but it can "boost", or ramp up to 5900 RPM if the drive feels the need.

According to WD themselves IntelliPower is:A fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate and caching algorithms designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance.

Basically, the drive will throttle itself when needed and run around 5400 RPM "normally" and in day-to-day use and only boost say at system startup or when the drive is used really intensely; like when installing large late, i.e. a game. It will still always be slower than a Black.

That said, I'm using it for storage and I can't say as I've noticed any real issues with it (I primarily use it to hold my videos and such, and they play back fine). So, perhaps it wasn't such a bad deal after all.

So my oh my got my first bad part from newegg. Got my parts on Friday and found my motherboard was bad womp womp. Now I get to wait til tomorrow to be able to send it out for RMA because its Columbus Day. So hopefully Ill have it back by next week but then I go on vacation so well see if I have time to get it setup before then.

Many of the regulars who've been here for a year or 2 will remember my task to get the ultimate system back in early-mid 2011. 3 GTX580's, 16GB RAM, 2600K, 1200W PSU, and 4 SSD's in RAID0. Oh, and watercooling on the cards and CPU of course.

A few months ago, i sold one of my 580's as i had no need for that kind of power. Last week, almost a year since i finished my last job, i got a letter informing me that the government owed me £404 as Tax Refund ("404 - Tax Refund Not Found" heh). It only took a few days for me to set my heart on a GTX6 card. Just a single one, as i didn't even have need for 2 580's. At the same time, i decided i didn't need watercooling if i was going with a single card.

So, with the money, i bought myself the very pretty EVGA GTX670. Just the normal version. I say pretty as it's got a white strip down the side we can see with the brand and model "engraved" into it. This provides a nice contrast in my 800D with the white LED i've got running (yes, i swapped back to it from the Elysium -- best decision ever i might add). Along with the 670, i'd need a CPU cooler. I looked for a while, and almost as soon as i saw it, i knew the NZXT Havik 140 was the one. I looked at reviews. I wanted something quiet but where the cooler could really pull ahead when it needed to. Sure enough, reviews pitched this in a very favorable light, though i wasn't quite ready for just HOW good it'd be.

I had planned to install some Corsair Airflow fans, 5 to be specific (2x140 + 3x120), but settled on leaving those until later.

So, today, these 2 parts arrived. I gutted the waterloop out of my system in about 30 minutes and set about installing the new cooler first. I have to give a big shout out of NZXT for making this cooler so easy to fit. It is BY FAR the simplest cooler i've ever fitted, more than even my EK Supreme HF Waterblock with "easyfit" kit. It's a 15 minute job and very simple to do. Next up, i fitted the card. You all know how this goes, so no explanation needed. What i WAS surprised at is just how light it was. I've been used to cards that weigh over a kilogram for the past 18 months or so. To hold a card that seems to weigh less than 500G was great.

Now, i mentioned earlier i wasn't ready for how good the CPU cooler actually was. Let's put it this way - You know when you're about to yawn, and you start to hear that sound in your head as you actually start yawning? Well, i can't hear it over the "sound" of that. To put it another way, if you've ever had an old motherboard with a 40mm fan fitted on the chipset, the whole system is about 100% QUIETER than that and without the annoying high pitch noise or rattling. The loudest part is the GTX670 cooler, and even that's difficult to hear. I'm sat about 3ft away from the source of the noise and i can barely hear it. It's a damn-near silent system, and the temps are quite admirable.

Now, when i turn up the CPU fan, obviously i can hear it, and when i turn up the GPU fan curve, obviously i can hear that too. However, it is still quieter than my watercooling ever was, and what's more, with each component handling it's own temperature and cooling, i can actually play games like WoW with the CPU fan at minimum and not worry about heat from the GPU pushing it up to 65-70C. Yes, i can game with the CPU fan at minimum and i don't have to worry about temps. It is literally that good. If i need to use the CPU, just up the fan speed and we're good. This is on a 2600K overclocked to 4.6Ghz at 1.4V, and temps peaked at 62C in WoW earlier. I don't run intensive software that often, so i can run silent mode with confidence most of the time.

One thing i'm not so impressed with is the 670's idle temps. It's noise is great, but at default settings, it idles at 55C. Temperature peaks at 80C in WoW (out in the barrens which pushes usage to 99%). Obviously, with MSI afterburner, i can create my own fan curve, so this is a small point not worth worrying about. One thing to keep in mind is that i'm running this in an 800D with only 1 exhaust fan at the back. The 800D is infamous for it's rather poor airflow (as it's only got 1 intake, and that's not a great design), so it's not a problem. Main point is that these temps are fine by me as i can always fix them very easily.

So, i solved all the problems with these upgrades;
- No more heat issues
- MUCH less noise in every situation
- Less maintenance
- Less power usage
- Support for 4 screens on one card - Something that comes in very handy as a developer at times
- Less crashes and bugs due to the very frustrating issues with the 580's when in SLI

I used to only be able to run 2 screens per GPU, and since i occasionally used a third, i had to disable SLI when on 2 cards.

Now, pictures. I must apologize for the quality. The iPad camera doesn't deal well in low light shots, but it also doesn't like light pointed in it's general direction. Click on any picture for a larger size one.
The CPU cooler up close with the 670 hiding underneath. You can see that it blocks off the first RAM slot if you're using RAM with tall heatsinks due to the fan, but that's not an issue for most people.

A general overview of the system. I've since removed the bottom 140MM fan you can see there. The overall tidyness of it is impressive as i'm traditionally known for not caring about tidying cables. With only 1 card, this is not a problem.

Now, perhaps the most stunning pic (in real life, it looks better);
A night shot with the lights at full. I've tweaked the position slightly since this shot was taken, but you can see i've run it from the PCIE slot (where it connects to the controller), up and behind the fan, to the top, down between the RAM modules, and then wedged it between the top of the GPU and the bottom of the CPU cooler. Since the change, you can now also see the model to the right of "EVGA" as well. It looks much more stunning in real life than in the picture.